Company Background
PROVISION Healthcare Technologies manufactures patient image wands (hardware with underlying software) used by healthcare providers (primarily hospitals and physician offices) as part of larger systems to test and monitor patients' body functions. The wand has been on the market for ten months and a new release of the wand's software isn't expected for another eight months. The company is approximately 150 people total, and has been in existence for just over five years. They have several products on the market, but the newest is by far the most complex product they have created. They are privately-owned and are financially stable.

Project Background
New government regulations have just been issued regarding patient safety. PROVISION must modify the wand software to incorporate this new functionality within six months or face steep fines. PROVISION has decided to move up its next wand release to meet the government deadlines. It has also decided to incorporate some new functionality and make some software fixes as part of this release.

Project Team
You have been named the project manager. You are from the Product Development department, from the Software team.
The project will require a cross-departmental team:
Assignment #1- Based on your own business experience and your reading (including here), discuss how various organizational structures, cultures, and management impact the project management process.

Organizational systems
There are three main types of organizational systems:
o Functional
o Matrix
o Projectized

In functional organizations, people are organized by teams that complete similar tasks. For example, an IT organization may be structured into teams based on technology or application (Web team, SAP team). People are assigned to projects generally on a part-time basis, but they do not formally report to the project manager in any way. In projectized organizations, people belong to project teams and report directly to the project manager. When the project is completed, the team is disbanded. A research & development organization may be organized in this manner. A matrixed organization is a blend of the other two styles. People report to both a functional manager and a project manager. They have project tasks as well as ongoing operational activities. There is considerable variability in this organizational style. The majority of companies are structured with some sort of matrixed system. The type of organizational system in place will affect how the project manager functions. In functional organizations, where there is a strong departmental decision-making structure, the project manager may not be able to go directly to the decision-maker. Instead, the project manager may need to walk the organization chart so peers are discussing and deciding upon scope, issues, and resources. The project manager will have very little authority to make decisions and must focus on building strong upward relationships. Decisions may take longer to be reached in this type of structure. In projectized organizations, the project manager will have much stronger authority for decision-making, and will be more likely to be able to go directly to the decision-maker. Regardless of the organizational system, though, the project manager will only be successful when she builds strong consensus-based relationships with the key stakeholders

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The response addresses the queries posted in 1264 words with references. Please use this information to help create your discussion.

//A project plan, according to the project management body of knowledge, is a formal document which guides the execution and controlling of a project. In this context, a project plan is undertaken in the following discussion regarding modifications in a patient imaging wand. It follows the knowledge areas of project management focusing on the needs of the stakeholders. This will help in justifying the scope of the project and its viability.//

Project plan
The current project has been undertaken by Provision Healthcare Technologies, a hardware and software manufacturer of the patient image wands. The company has just released its latest consignments of wands to the market and there will not be any release for the next eight months. In the meanwhile, the government has decided to bring a regulation regarding the specifications of the safety of patients while manufacturing the wands. As the government's move is to be abided strictly, Provision has to fix the issues with the manufacturing of wands and modify the hardware and the software to follow the recommendations. It has to incorporate the functionality with latest designs before it plans its next release.

Knowledge areas of project management
According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), there is a standard practice for project management, published in a document called 'A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge'. It defines that the project management life cycle mentions the phases or process groups associated with a project. These knowledge groups are categorized under initiating processes, planning processes, executing processes, controlling processes and closing processes.

These groups are divided into nine knowledge areas that can be further divided into 39 process areas. These are the descriptions that form the foundations for determining the characteristics, processes and the maturity level of a project. The nine knowledge areas in a project are project integration, scope of the project, time frame, ...

Solution Summary

The response addresses the queries posted in 1264 words with references.